I’m so inspired after seeing “One Found Sound” perform at Cafe Du Nord tonight. This orchestra is just too damned talented! Here’s a snippet of #Beethoven’s 3rd Symphony. It’s such a privilege to hear a well played masterpiece in such a casual and welcoming venue! #SFBA#SFBayArea#Music
Also #SFBayArea#Palestine
Dena Takruri: These protesters literally put their bodies on the line in the pouring rain to block the entrances to Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, California.
Lockheed Martin manufactures fighter jets and weapons that Israel is using in its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza @palestine@Israel
Also #SFBayArea#Palestine
Dena Takruri: These protesters literally put their bodies on the line in the pouring rain to block the entrances to Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, California.
Lockheed Martin manufactures fighter jets and weapons that Israel is using in its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza @palestine@Israel
Question! What are your favorite California native plants for the garden?
I am helping a community farm's native plant propagation project and I'm working on our wishlist. We're at the northeastern end of the Bay Area, so stuff from our region is best but anything from CA is worth consideration.
These are to be put out for sale to the general public, most of whom are not very familiar with the concept of native plants and are easily turned off by things that look funky or have specialized needs. Which is too bad, because funky/weird special plants are my favorites!
Edibility and fragrance are good bonuses that will add appeal. We don't want things to be stuck in pots for too long, natives suffer if they don't go in the ground and start developing deep roots pretty quick.
Is it totally the wrong time in the year to be starting any annuals from seeds? I dunno, so I'm focusing mostly on perennials for now.
I'll edit my list, in alphabetical order by scientific name:
Achillea millefolium, common yarrow is good and standard.
Aristolochia californica, the California pipevine, is totally funky but a big must since it's the only food for pipevine swallowtail caterpillars-- at the nursery where I used to work, we always had a waiting list for these because they're so slow to propagate.
Asclepias fascicularis, narrowleaf milkweed-- obvious pick for monarchs
Asclepias speciosa, showy milkweed
Camassia quamash, blue camas was a staple food for the First Nations people and the flowers are nice but I never see it in the nurseries-- I hear it's pretty easy to grow, any reason not to try for this one?
Ceanothus, I don't know why this stuff gets called California "lilac" because it doesn't smell a darn thing like lilac, very popular though
Clinopodium douglasii, yerba buena is a nice minty groundcover
Dicentra formosa, the western bleedingheart, is one of my favorite plants ever, so elegant!
Eschscholzia californica, California poppy
Epilobium canum, California fuschia
Erigeron glaucus, seaside daisy-- especially the compact Wayne Roderick form is popular
Eriogonum fasciculatum, California buckwheat
Eriogonum latifolium, seaside buckwheat
Eriogonum umbellatum, sulphur buckwheat is the bright yellow one
Erythranthe cardinalis, scarlet monkeyflower is one I see a lot
Fragaria chiloensis, beach strawberries I've been digging up from the yard and potting whole flats of em
Heuchera sanguinum, coral bells, has very attractive low foliage and tall flower spikes
Heteromeles arbutifolia, Toyon is a bit on the large side for our purposes but such an attractive and important habitat plant I want to carry a few
Iris douglasiana we've already got on hand
Lonicera ciliosa, orange trumpet honeysuckle, could be a good alternative to the invasive Japanese one
Monardella villosa, coyote mint smells very strong and has nice flowers
Penstemons, gosh there's so many which ones??
Prunella vulgaris, selfheal is a useful herb found all over the place
Ribes aureum, the golden currant, is edible and nice.
Ribes sanguinum, the red flowering currant is a popular one all over the world, so that's an obvious pick.
Salvia apiana, white sage is one I'd like more people to grow at home and stop overharvesting from the wild
Salvia clevelandii
Salvia mellifera, black sage
Salvia spathacea, hummingbird sage is quite attractive and has a fun pineapple sage flavor
Sisyrinchium bellum is charming and most nurseries with natives carry it
Symphyotrichum chilense, pacific aster we've got I've been digging it up where it jumped into the walkway and potting up a lot
Verbena lilacina is a nice fragrant one I'm fond of
Vitis californica, the native grape might be good-- although the hybrid Roger's Red is the version preferred by a lot of customers
So, does anyone know if there is a museum in the Bay Area that exhibits items from the 1915 Pan Pacific world fair? I have an original sculpture from there, an actual paper mache monstrous.
Strange request -- are there any physical locations in the Bay Area that sell little vials or lockets of gold dust? Trying to source some elements for an art piece on the Gold Rush. #sfbayarea
Just planted an #herb bed in the #garden. I poured Italian parsley seeds into my hand, realized the packet held far more than I needed, and set the packet down, so I could give the rest to our neighbor, along with the entire sealed packet of cilantro* seeds that came in the set. As I lightly raked dirt over the seeds, a huge gust of wind came up and tossed the parsley packet up in the air where it briefly spun like a pinwheel then dropped to the dirt, empty.
Someday, someone's going to ask why I planted so damned much #parsley.
The gods willed it.
(Anything we don't use, the neighbor or the #pollinators will.)
I am not expert in this topic, but it does seem like if we want to continue having the same quality of life with easy access to electricity, we really need to work on putting our power lines underground. This has been an issue in #California both because of fires, and severe storms in the last few years. The utility companies really don't seem to recognize the urgency of getting this done.
Nancy Pelosi sufficiently pissed me off enough with her recent comments about ceasefire supporters that I just cast a vote for Marjorie Mikels, whose campaign statement focuses exclusively on highlighting the US military-industrial complex's complicity in war crimes. Mikels has zero chance of winning, but maybe, just maybe, she might get enough votes to send a message to Nancy that there are quite a lot of people who support a ceasefire in her district.
Fully sneering at the local Prop E ballot measure in #SanFrancisco, which would “allow” the police dept to do a bunch of shady shit, including use new surveillance technology without approval from the Board of Supervisors.
It's written to sound like there would be hearings and oversight when in fact there probably wouldn't.
NBC Bay Area: 100-foot redwood tore off the front porch of the home and landed on the vehicle.
The girl, who was sitting in the front seat of the car, became trapped. First responders removed a few tree limbs and freed her. She was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=16OcwXAGgGk#Saratoga#sfbayarea
Are you bored 🥱? Do you need something to liven up your life? Looking for something to do this week? We have three unique events hosted in San Francisco’s Lower Haight by our volunteers Thursday-Saturday! Come sign up!!
Around our raised vegetable beds, we have ~6" of dense decomposed granite on top of high-quality #weed barrier cloth on top of barest of bare dirt. And still the oxalis (sour grass, Bermuda buttercup, #Oxalis pes-caprae, goat's foot, soursop) comes up. It's even in the planting beds 20" higher than the decomposed granite. And we only installed the beds and dirt a couple of months ago.
We're using herbicides only very sparingly and not on this, but I'm so tempted.
(About the sandals: It was a little chilly today, long sleeves but no jacket. I wear sandals as long as there's no danger of frostbite.)